Featured

Might just as well ditch the ballot box, and all the huffing and puffing at ‘Your Waverley’ because the Government wants to blow them all down and continue to allow development in the countryside.

Ignoring the views of local residents are becoming an everyday occurrence as to-day Waverley Borough Council lose yet another planning appeal. This time for 59 homes on land outside the settlement boundary of Ewhurst. Rendering yet another Neighbourhood Plan useless.

So there you have it. Two homes built by Berkeley Homes just 20 years ago will be demolished to make way for 47 new homes can be built – 15 of which will be “affordable” on land at Firethorn Farm. Land owned by a former Ewhurst resident who has bu**ered off to live in the rural Hampshire countryside. Same resident who trousered millions after receiving planning permission on appeal for Larkfield.

Trees covered by Tree Preservation Orders will require removal, but then that’s not a problem is it? As for the Neighbourhood Plan – here’s what the Inspector thinks of that little nuisance document that villagers have spent many months putting together!

In the meantime developers, Miller Homes are busy covering another part of Ewhurst in concrete, completely destroying the hedge along the entire length of the access road at Backward Point off the Cranleigh Road, Ewhurst. A hedge which has been destroyed by concrete sets laid down against the hedge which has completely destroyed the hedge’s its root system, and now leaves the nearby properties completely exposed.

Here is the decision. A decision that will rock the socks off Waverley Planners who may find themselves in trouble with the Government as they may once again find themselves not performing against the critical data as they continue to lose major appeals.

PS. No objection from Protect Our Waverley or the Campaign for The Preservation of Rural England. The Surrey Hills AONB, which overlooks the site – made the fact that it had no objection known to the Inspector.

Never has there been such a U-Turn of views since that major one on the road to Damascus!

First to go down the Waverley plughole – was the application to build homes in the beer garden at Ewhurst’s Bull Pub. Developers want to remove pub extensions including the popular skittle alley and beer garden and replace with five homes.

The loss of the gardens, the proximity to homes, a huge loss of trees, in the middle of the Conservation Area, were all considered by Waverley planning wally’s as ” causing less than significant harm!”

What does that mean exactly – planning gobbledegook for – yes, it will spoil the pretty Ewhurst green area, but no matter because it will increase Ewhurst’s housing supply and put another few notches on our five-year land supply.

Villagers were having none of it and spewed out 130+ letters to say so. They claimed it was an asset stripping exercise of a treasured community asset, which would cut the heart out of a community that was already producing its quota of new homes.

“To grant this would be a bad day for the borough and a bad day for Ewhurst,” said an objector.

Everyone on the planning committee, yes, everyone, spoke against the development and argued against officers, who claimed, “the benefit would outweigh the harm.” Councillor Kevin Deanus said Alfold residents met annually on his patch to grieve the demise of their local pub The Crown Pub saying officers’ claims that The Bull would be “conserved and enhanced”by the development, was a nonsense.

Some called the developers “greedy” others argued the loss of 18 trees to “provide a big blob of property” would be a travesty!

Moments after it was UNANIMOUSLY REFUSED. Down went another application recommended for approval to convert stables into a home in Upper Ifold, Dunsfold. Officers referred to it as a windfall, councillors described it as a “rotten apple.”

Following swiftly on officers thought they were home and dry with a development to squeeze two homes into the back gardens of 114-118 Horsham Road, Cranleigh because a previous scheme was refused for three three-storey properties. Arguing it was no longer backland development as the Crest Nicholson 120/+90=?? homes were under construction behind the Horsham Road in Longhurst Park!

Cries of‘garden grabbing’, loss of more trees, the huge impact on neighbouring properties, and a harmful change to the to the area, was challenged by officers who claimed there were no highway objections and similar development had occurred nearby.

Cranleigh Councillor Liz Townsend argued that Cranleigh had already reached its target of 1,700 homes just a few years into the Local Plan. “And, where’s the bat survey for this important wildlife corridor,she asked?

Butter our butts and call us a scone – as they say in the West Country – but ‘Your Waverley’ is changing the habit of a lifetime and has begun turning down housing development in the countryside!

Ewhurst is the first village to benefit from having a ‘sound and approved Local Plan’ and so thick were the praises being heaped on planning officers for achieving this miracle that you could double up on a huge dollop of West Country clotted cream!

The borough of Waverley has not had the protection of a Local Development Plan since 2002! And, until recently has consistently objected to two of the largest brownfield sites in the borough being developed! Dunsfold Aerodrome and Hewitts Industrial Estate in Cranleigh!

‘Such a wonderful report,’ ‘the officers are marvellous,’ ‘they have workedsoooooo hard.’ Pass the sick bowl – Alice! All because planning officershave done a complete volte-face just months after recommending approval of a development at Firethorn Farm, Ewhurst of 58 dwellings on a field under WA/2017/0369, behind Larkfields in Horsham Lane, Ewhurst, and on the same day it recommended approval again, in a 79 PAGE REPORT FOR A REDUCED NUMBER OF 49 DWELLINGS BECAUSE – its benefits would outweigh the harm. Then on the night it then recommending refusal, in a one-page report, because its harm would outweigh the benefits!

CONFUSED?

NOW YOU SEE IT ON THE AGENDA FEBRUARY 2018

NOW YOU DONT ON A SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT FEBRUARY 2018

But Ewhurst residents may not be able to hold their breath for too long. The applicant landowner Mr Peter Nutting has also registered a planning appeal.

Councillor Stephen Mulliner, a member of the JPC, suggested the applicant should be talking to the Parish Council which is in the process of producing its own Neighbourhood Plan. “I don’t rule this site out forever, the applicant should be seeking discussions with the parish council for its inclusion in the Neighbourhood Plan.

Former Portfolio Holder for Planning Councillor Brian Adams said: ‘This site has never been compared with other sites in the area. He now believed,‘as the site was, now on the radar, it could come before us again in the Local Plan Part 11 in 12 months time!’

A £20 million pound brick and tile factory could soon be on its way to yet another country lane in the East, on the outskirts of Ewhurst!

The residents living over there in the East of the borough could be forgiven for thinking that the lunatics were taking over the Asylum! The scheme has already been described by the locals as a ‘bombshell’ about to hit them.

Look back a year or so, and one of the most famous clay tile making factories in the South of England – Swallow Tiles – was closed down – and million pound Linden Homes were built alongside a roundabout nicknamed ‘Kamikaze Corner’ in Ewhurst Road, Cranleigh. Some of which homes are already on the move! The developer even provided a footpath to Ewhurst! THEN…

Rudgwick Brickworks – CLOSED.

Cranleigh Brick & Tile CLOSED and grab lorries from all parts of Surrey will thunder along the A281 and through the country lanes every seven minutes for the next five years infilling the site with their spoils – so homes can be built off Knowle Lane. Cranleigh.

Not a word of course from By-Pass Byham and the Bramley crowd, because the Parish Council trousered a golden egg for allowing the lorries to thunder through its hallowed high street along the A281 to Knowle Lane.

Now Weinberger Limited has submitted a Consultation application to Waverley Planners seeking consent for a new tile and brick factory, adjacent to its existing brickworks, and including Norman Marshalls scrapyard, in a narrow country lane in Horsham Lane, Ewhurst. The entire scheme, if allowed, will start in 2019, just in time to provide millions of bricks and tiles for the thousands of homes to be built in ‘Your Waverley’ and the many thousands more elsewhere in the South of England!

Some years back, 2006 to be precise, this site was earmarked for potential gravel extraction and landfill. Major objections were raised concerning a site of ecological value and the impact of lorries, etc on narrow rural roads.Nothing has changed yet Wienerberger obviously feel they have.

We cynics at the Waverley Web would love to identify how much money Weinberger have made in political donations over the years and to whom – that would throw up an interesting aspect, WOULDN’T IT? We understand from the locals the company has masses of existing capacity so we can’t quite understand any justification for expansion unless of course they intend on supplying house building bricks for the whole of the South of England. Which, of course, we expect is exactly what it intends as its’ other plant is in Doncaster!

COULD ‘YOUR WAVERLEY’ SOON BECOME THE BRICK AND TILE MANUFACTURING MACHINE FOR THE WHOLE OF THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND?

The entire project which includes the extraction from over 43 hectares of land, has a proposed end date of WAIT FOR IT…WAIT FOR IT!

We can see it now – thousands of lorries hurtling through, Rowhook, Wallis Wood, Cranleigh and perhaps even Bramley’s Barmy By-Pass Byham’s patch – delivering their wares to builders countrywide for the next half century! Even through Ewhurst village across Winterfold and through the Shere Cut! Or, perhaps through Forest Green onto the A24?

So the site where dinosaurs roamed millions of years ago – could soon be churning up even more fodder for the Natural History Museum – and the dinosaurs at Ewhurst Parish Council, who haven’t posted anything about the scheme, at least not that we can find on its website – or on the village notice boards – Secrecy seems to be the name of the game these days – (even with parish councils). No doubt the Parish Council is too busy constructing its’ Neighbourhood Plan!

Might find their consultation meeting, to be held this month, attracts a good attendance.

Just when you thought it was safe to heave a huge sigh of relief, Povey-Power is about to be inflicted all over again on the East of the Borough!
In a classic case of Hobson’s Choice: the Tory-Tossers had to choose between Uriah Heep (AKA Alan Young) & Fagin (Andrew Povey). Some choice!

We told you all about the Pre-Election Stress Disorder phenomenon that struck the East of the borough just a few weeks ago.

Now, hang onto your blue rosettes, because Post Election Stress Disorder is about to hit the High Street as ‘The Comeback Kid’ ricochets back onto the Cranleigh / Ewhurst scene! No doubt The Surrey Ad has swopped its allegiance now its usual Kodak Kid has been ditched in four of its NBF (New best friend) – Kodak Povey!

“If you are out there Rosaleen Egan – get your Rebocks on and hit the Cranleigh / Ewhurst pavements because Jesus Mary and the Joseph – AKA Guildford Conservative Associations – has just answered all your prayers!

Now, take a deep breath and readers of a sensitive disposition look away, because this news comes with a Waverley Web health warning! Who’s soon going to be pulling ‘Your Surrey’s’ county council strings?

Sadly the new broom many over there in the East had hoped would sweep County Hall clean and restore faith in local politics – Phillip Townsend – has not been selected to stand. No! we hear you cry! NO, surely it cannot be?

Here’s your candidates: it’s called HOBSONS CHOICE.

In the Blue Corner –

Here you have Andrew Povey – disgraced former `leader of Surrey County Council, who with a knockout blow, beat off the competition.

It really is quite extraordinary that with a population of over 300 hundred million people the USA could only dredge up two totally unsuitable people to compete for the Presidency – Clinton and Trump?

Likewise, in the whole of Eastern Waverley – with a population of 12/13,000 soon to be nearer 20,000! – the Tory Tossers were reduced to sending in the disgraced former leader Gotta-pick-a-pocket-or-two-or-three – none other than Dr (as he likes to be known!) Andrew Povey.

Want to read more about the disgraced former Leader of Surrey County Council, whose colleagues took a vote of no confidence in him, and yet is now predicted to be Surrey County Council’s very own Comeback Kid? Bet David Hodge & Co can hardly wait?!?! Even some of them will be registering in Cranleigh and voting UKIP!

Really makes you wonder doesn’t it? The man pictured above by our own staff photographer, is the very same man who introduced Politics with a great big capital P into the village council chamber over 20 years ago, abandoned it for his race up Surrey County Council’s greasy pole, reaching the top only to slide down it faster than Usain Bolt on speed ! Now selected to take over the reins of Uriah Young (AKA Alan Young) . But when we look at who they’ve replaced him with we can’t help wondering why they bothered?

All aboard! All aboard! The Waverley Developers’ Bandwagon is departing now! Parish, Town & Borough Councillors to the front of the queue!

With no Local Plan in place, pre-applications and planning applications are being thrown into Waverley’s ever-deepening pot.

A campaign has been launched against the former Mayor of Farnham, ‘Rickity Ricketts’ (aka Cllr Jeremy Ricketts), plans for nine luxury homes at Old Park Stables, near the historic St Swithun’s Way footpath in the countryside, north of the town. The only thing in its favour is that it is a former brown field site, but objectors say they are ‘nauseated’ by the development, as when the Mayor opened a sensory garden at a local school recently, he cooed about the importance of nature and looking after the planet… Looking after his own pocket more like!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the borough, in Ewhurst, the Chairman of the Parish Council, Richard Cleaves, is trying to speed up the house building programme by asking for officers’ opinion to build 22 homes on a green field, being grazed by horses, at the back of Mapledrakes Road adjoining his father’s property, Treetops. Interested parties are keen to know if he will declare an interest when the scheme is considered.

Elsewhere, Cranleigh is besieged by developers but never fear, those entirely selfless married councillors, Stewart and Jeanette Stennett, have sought advice from Waverley planning officers’ about a plan that is so very dear to their hearts… to give the village 30 affordable homes in Guildford Road.

Of course, there’s a catch but it’s only the tiniest, weeniest catch: Waverley has to give them back to the Stennett Clan after 30 years… Who says Councillors only have their own interests at heart? Shame on them!!!